Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987)
Comedy • 1h 33m
Director: John Hughes
Cast: Steve Martin, John Candy, Laila Robins, Michael McKean, Dylan Baker, Kevin Bacon, Olivia Burnette, Carol Bruce, Diana Douglas, Martin Ferrero, Larry Hankin, Richard Herd, Susan Kellermann, Matthew Lawrence, Edie McClurg, Susan Isaacs, John Randolph Jones, Ben Stein, Lyman Ward, George Petrie, Gary Riley, Charles Tyner, Lulie Newcomb, Nicholas Wyman, Gaetano Lisi, Diana Castle, Julie H. Morgan, Bill Erwin, Ruth de Sosa, Kim Genelle, Grant Forsberg, David Raiport, Andrew J. Hentz, Karen Meisinger, Gary Palmer, John Moio, Victoria Vanderkloot, William Windom, Troy Evans, George Sasaki
Best English-friendly & video release · updated 9 months ago
Paramount 4K Blu-ray has DNR applied but it is still much better than the bad Blu-ray
UHD tiers
DNR applied but it is still much better than the bad BD
Overview
An irritable marketing executive, Neal Page, is heading home to Chicago for Thanksgiving when a number of delays force him to travel with a well meaning but overbearing shower curtain ring salesman, Del Griffith.
Director: John Hughes
Video format: UHD Blu-ray
Criterion 4K
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab) · caps-a-holic (opens in a new tab)
Director: John Hughes
Sources: caps-a-holic (opens in a new tab)
Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray see caps-a-holic, has good new master but as usual poorly encoded with macro blocking and chroma noise which is just as horrible. See also cap 4. Their Blu-ray looks much better in the above shot and is more consistently grainy.
Director: John Hughes
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Director: Alex Proyas
Paramount 4K Blu-ray (30th anniv.)
Director: Tony Scott
The 70mm 6-track mix has a higher bitrate on the Paramount 1998 DVD, but is more limited than on the THX LaserDisc The Paramount 1998 DVD also has open matte versions in fullscreen 1.33:1 and widescreen 2.00:1 instead of the theatrical aspect ratio of 2.39:1, but the 2.00:1 widescreen presentation is non-anamorphic. The THX LaserDisc is available in both fullscreen 1.33:1 and widescreen 2.00:1 variants.
Director: Terrence Malick
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Lovely underlying remaster by Criterion and Resillion but encode is sadly low-pass filtered by Pixelogic, and even then, the encode is still less than ideal. Still easily obliterates any prior disc release, but certainly wouldn't hurt to have a UK or German label take a crack at this same master.
Director: Peter Faiman
Australia Cut: Australia Fox DVD
International Cut: Paramount Blu-ray
Encore Cut: Germany Winkler Film 4K Blu-ray, censored but good encoding
Sources: movie-censorship.com (opens in a new tab)
US Paramount 4K Blu-ray, is the International US Cut and not the Encore Cut
Australia Cut: Laserdisc
The film exists in three versions:
- the original Australian cut (~104 minutes at 24fps/~100 minutes at 25fps);
- the American/international version (~98 minutes at 24fps/~94 minutes at 25fps) trimming some exposition in the Outback first half of the film and some shorter extensions of a few seconds in the New York section, altering some of the dialogue – including censoring a "fuck" to "screw" – but featuring one additional dialogue extension not in the Australian version (a comparison of the two cuts can be found at Movie Censorship);
- the Australian Encore Cut (~95 minutes at 24fps/~91 minutes at 25fps) which uses the international version source so it already has those alterations but also removes approximately three minutes consisting of parts of two scenes featuring Mick grabbing the crotch of a cross-dressing prostitute and a later sequence when he does the same thing at a party to a woman with a deep voice (a comparison of the international version and the Encore Cut can be found at Movie Censorship).
3D version: Paramount 3D Blu-ray
Paramount 4K Blu-ray on October 26 2026
Director: Billy Wilder
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Paramount 4K Blu-ray. See caps
HDR/grading: nice, but some blown out
Encoding: inconsistent, smeared motion
DNR: inconsistent, frozen
Old Paramount Blu-ray is arguably a solid alternative choice
Paramount 4K Blu-ray mono
Paramount 4K Blu-ray mono is different version of the Blu-ray mono from the same old 2000 DVD transfer.
The 5.1 remix on the 4K Blu-ray is an appalling remix done by going wild with artificially generated stems from Park Road Post who were given the surviving mono to separate. The experience is jarring and fidelity to original mix in terms of level balance, directionality and impact is nonexistent. Not only does this sound painfully weird, but the Paramount mixers then did whatever they wanted in terms of LFE, sound pans and effect changes.
The original mono mix was not restored and still needs it badly. The 4K master is filled with frozen grain examples coming and going plus some HDR issues in addition to the usual Paramount problems. It is simultaneously better and worse than the Blu-ray master.
Director: Robert Altman
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Criterion 4K Blu-ray scheduled for Dec 2026 release
Director: Richard Linklater
Sources: caps-a-holic (opens in a new tab)
Original AR: Paramount 4K Blu-ray
IMAX AR: Paramount 3D Blu-ray
More Comedy on Blu-ray
Director: Paul King
StudioCanal UK 4K Blu-ray minimal picture upgrade (2K upscale)
StudioCanal UK 4K Blu-ray has good new Atmos mix
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Included in the Complete Kubrick box set with FiM encode of the same master from the Sony release without the filtering; Comparison between Sony and Criterion.
Mono: 1994 LaserDisc (marginally, unfiltered) or Criterion 4K Blu-ray (filtered)
5.1 Remix: Criterion 4K Blu-ray
Director: Fred Dekker
Director: Steve De Jarnatt
2024 Kino Lorber Blu-ray
UK Transmission 4K Blu-ray in January 2027
Either the 2015 Kino Lorber Blu-ray or the Arrow Blu-ray
The 2024 Kino Lorber Blu-ray is botched.
Director: Bruce Robinson
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Arrow 4K Blu-ray has stronger encode than Criterion
Director: Vincente Minnelli
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